Thanx James, will check that in a sec. Robert, this was an expansion of the original edition; there may be others, but I haven't seen them.Οὖτις, This A lot of the stories feel very much like an attempt to create "modern" fables. seems to contradict this: As such there isn't a lot of engagement with contemporary issues or ideas, apart from the occasional reference to Hitler or psychoanalysis, What does the "modern" attempt consist of? which is something I usually find more engaging about scifi in general. What do you find more engaging?
― dow, Thursday, 30 October 2014 21:38 (nine years ago) link
Good one, James! Still need to read her and Bioy Casares.
― dow, Thursday, 30 October 2014 21:46 (nine years ago) link
(Looks at my terrifyingly huge shopping list) ah, it was Extraordinary Tales edited by Borges/Casares.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 30 October 2014 22:29 (nine years ago) link
A lot of the stories feel very much like an attempt to create "modern" fables. seems to contradict this: As such there isn't a lot of engagement with contemporary issues or ideas, apart from the occasional reference to Hitler or psychoanalysis, What does the "modern" attempt consist of?
mostly placing things like fairies and monsters in the context of drunk adults lol (I am not entirely kidding). The settings are modern insofar as they involve the juxtaposition of things from classical antiquity/fairytales/myths against regular adults with jobs and cars and families. But there's little of the "what if [insert trend in modern society] was carried to some extreme conclusion", there's very little that explicitly connects the stories to a time and period any more specific than "some time in the 20th century".
which is something I usually find more engaging about scifi in general. What do you find more engaging?
I'm referring to authors extrapolating from some uniquely contemporary situation or new scientific idea into the future. The Martian Chronicles isn't really about Mars, it's about Bradbury's reservations about contemporary culture and politics. PKD writing about drugs and religious visions and figures in a way that is very late 60s/early 70s. Bester and Sturgeon writing obsessively about psychoanalysis is a very 50s thing. Cyberpunk guys reflecting the dawning 80s obsession with computers and information systems. There isn't really any of this in Kuttner/Moore, the details of their stories are deliberately vague and generalized in an attempt to occupy that archetypal space that belongs to fables and myths. Specific dates or locations or cultural references are pretty much entirely absent from their stories. There isn't anything wrong with this - these are well-written, engaging stories - they just take a tack that's a little different then what I usually like to get from sf.
enough (specific dates or locations are rarely mentioned,
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 30 October 2014 22:40 (nine years ago) link
hmm sorry for that text tag at the end there
here's an example - one of these stories is about a couple renting a room to a strange roommate. turns out the roommate is keeping fairies in a birdcage in his room and the fairies bring him good luck. the couple disturbs the fairies, roommate moves out but leaves the birdcage behind, and then some more slovenly, "less lucky" fairies move into it. the end. All of the tension in the story centers around this couple trying to a) find out what's in the birdcage and then b) not being able to accept that fairies are real. There's pretty much no details given about the couple, where they live, what they do, etc. beyond the fact that they like to go to a local bar to drink.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 30 October 2014 22:44 (nine years ago) link
Ha ha, great descriptions, thanks!
― dow, Thursday, 30 October 2014 23:18 (nine years ago) link
Re the Borges collection, see also this: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/B0074YVYJ6.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg, which has lots of good stuff
― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Thursday, 30 October 2014 23:35 (nine years ago) link
Jeff VanderMeer passes along a response to the article I posted earlier today:http://weirdfictionreview.com/2014/10/weird-france-and-belgium-a-best-of/
― dow, Thursday, 30 October 2014 23:36 (nine years ago) link
Found the Calvino contents list online:
Contents:
I. The Visionary Fantastic of the Nineteenth Century The Story of the Demoniac Pacheco by Jan Potocki Autumn Sorcery by Joseph von Eichendorff The Sandman by E. T. A. Hoffmann Wandering Willie's Tale by Sir Walter Scott The Elixir of Life by Honoré de Balzac The Eye with No Lid by Philarète Chasles The Enchanted Hand by Gérard de Nerval Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne The Nose by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol The Beautiful Vampire by Théophile Gautier The Venus of Ille by Prosper Mérimée The Ghost and the Bonesetter by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu II. The Everyday Fantastic of the Nineteenth Century The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe The Shadow by Hans Christian Anderson The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens The Dream by Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev A Shameless Rascal by Nicolai Semyonovich Leskov The Very Image by Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam Night: A Nightmare by Guy de Maupassant A Lasting Love by Vernon Lee Chickamauga by Ambrose Bierce The Holes in the Mask by Jean Lorrain The Bottle Imp by Robert Louis Stevenson The Friends of the Friends by Henry James The Bridge-Builders by Rudyard Kipling The Country of the Blind by H. G. Wells
― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Thursday, 30 October 2014 23:36 (nine years ago) link
Cool, I love Weird Fiction Review.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 30 October 2014 23:41 (nine years ago) link
Shakey, your descriptions and analysis of Kuttner/Moore are grebt, although I don't agree with your conclusion that this is necessarily a bad thing.
― Thackeray Zax (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 31 October 2014 00:21 (nine years ago) link
Oh I dont think it's bad. It's some kind of middle ground between horror and fantasy and sf
― Οὖτις, Friday, 31 October 2014 00:28 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, that's often my favorite place, like the old term "slipstream"--dunno if K&M were ever referred to that way, but they're often down with/at the crossroads, like it's their natural habitat.
― dow, Friday, 31 October 2014 01:10 (nine years ago) link
All those calvino stories look like they'll be available at project Gutenberg - they look like they are all out of copyright.
― koogs, Friday, 31 October 2014 04:42 (nine years ago) link
I've got that Calvino anthology.
Another similar thing is Alberto Manguel's two Black Water anthologies.
Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature ed. Alberto Manguel (Picador 0-330-28141-0, 1983 [Feb ’84], £4.95, 967pp, tp) Anthology of 72 stories and excerpts, from “literary” fantasists (including Bradbury and Le Guin as well as Poe, Kafka, Calvino, etc.) A 1983 book — not seen till 1984.xvi · Foreword · Alberto Manguel · fw1 · House Taken Over · Julio Cortázar · ss End of the Game and Other Stories, Random House, 19677 · How Love Came to Professor Guildea [“The Man Who Was Beloved”] · Robert S. Hichens · na Pearson’s Magazine Oct, 189749 · Climax for a Ghost Story · I. A. Ireland · vi, 191950 · The Mysteries of the Joy Rio · Tennessee Williams · ss, 195462 · Pomegranate Seed · Edith Wharton · nv The Saturday Evening Post Apr 25 ’3192 · Venetian Masks · Adolfo Bioy Casares; trans. by Alberto Manguel · ss *110 · The Wish House · Rudyard Kipling · ss Maclean’s Oct 15 ’24127 · The Playground · Ray Bradbury · ss Esquire Oct ’53141 · Importance · Manuel Mujica Lainez · ss, 1978144 · Enoch Soames · Max Beerbohm · nv The Century May ’16171 · A Visitor from Down Under · L. P. Hartley · ss The Ghost-Book, ed. Cynthia Asquith, London: Hutchinson, 1926188 · Laura · Saki · ss Beasts and Super-Beasts, John Lane, 1914193 · An Injustice Revealed · Anon. · ss198 · A Little Place Off the Edgware Road · Graham Greene · ss Nineteen Stories, Heinemann, 1947204 · From “A School Story” · M. R. James · ex More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, Arnold, 1911206 · The Signalman · Charles Dickens · ss All the Year Round Christmas, 1866219 · The Tall Woman · Pedro Antonio de Alarcón · nv235 · A Scent of Mimosa · Francis King · ss The Times Anthology of Ghost Stories, Anon., London: Cape, 1975249 · Death and the Gardener [from Le Grand Ecart] · Jean Cocteau · ex, 1923250 · Lord Mountdrago [“Doctor and Patient”] · W. Somerset Maugham · nv The International Feb ’39273 · The Sick Gentleman’s Last Visit · Giovanni Papini · ss The Blind Pilot, 1907279 · Insomnia [1956] · Virgilio Pinera · vi280 · The Storm [“Frritt-Flacc”] · Jules Verne · ss; Le Figaro Illustre December 1884.287 · A Dream (from The Arabian Nights Entertainments) · Anon. · vi289 · The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar · Edgar Allan Poe · ss American Whig Review Dec, 1845299 · Split Second · Daphne du Maurier · nv The Apple Tree, London: Gollancz, 1952345 · August 25, 1983 · Jorge Luís Borges · ss, 1982351 · How Wang-Fo Was Saved · Marguerite Yourcenar · ss; in Nouvelles Orientales, 1963.361 · From “Peter and Rosa” · Isak Dinesen · ex Winter’s Tales, Putnam, 1942363 · Tattoo · Junichiro Tanizaki · ss, 1910371 · John Duffy’s Brother · Flann O’Brien · ss Story Jul/Aug ’41377 · Lady into Fox · David Garnett · na New York: Knopf, 1923430 · Father’s Last Escape · Bruno Schulz · ss Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, 1937435 · A Man by the Name of Ziegler · Hermann Hesse · ss, 1954440 · The Argentine Ant [1952] · Italo Calvino; trans. by Archibald Colquhoun · nv Adam, One Afternoon, Colliro, 1957470 · The Lady on the Grey · John Collier · ss New Yorker Jun 16 ’51478 · The Queen of Spades [1834] · Alexander Sergeievitch Pushkin; trans. by Rosemary Edmonds · nv503 · Of a Promise Kept · Lafcadio Hearn · ss A Japanese Miscellany, Little, Brown, 1901507 · The Wizard Postponed [from The Book of Examples of Count Lucanor, adapt. 1935] · Juan Manuel, Jorge Luís Borges, adapt.; trans. by Norman Thomas di Giovanni · ss A Universal History of Infamy, Allen Lane, 1973511 · The Monkey’s Paw · W. W. Jacobs · ss Harper’s Monthly Sep ’02522 · The Bottle Imp · Robert Louis Stevenson · nv New York Herald Feb 8-Mar 1, 1891550 · The Rocking-Horse Winner · D. H. Lawrence · ss The Ghost-Book, ed. Cynthia Asquith, London: Hutchinson, 1926565 · Certain Distant Suns · Joanne Greenburg · ss High Crimes and Misdemeanors, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1979582 · The Third Bank of the River · João Guimarães Rosa · ss, 1967588 · Home · Hilaire Belloc · ss596 · The Door in the Wall · H. G. Wells · ss The Daily Chronicle Jul 14 ’06612 · The Friends · Silvina Ocampo · ss, 1982619 · Et in Sempiternum Pereant · Charles Williams · ss The London Mercury Dec ’35629 · The Captives of Longjumeau · Léon Bloy · ss, 1967634 · The Visit to the Museum · Vladimir Nabokov · ss, 1958644 · “Autumn Mountain” · Ryunosuke Akutagawa · ss652 · The Sight · Brian Moore · ss Irish Ghost Stories, ed. Joseph Hone, Hamish Hamilton, 1977670 · Clorinda · André Pieyre de Mandiargues · ss, 1979675 · The Pagan Rabbi · Cynthia Ozick · nv The Hudson Review, 1966704 · The Fisherman and His Soul · Oscar Wilde · nv The House of Pomegranates, 1891735 · The Bureau d’Echange de Maux · Lord Dunsany · ss The Smart Set Jan ’15740 · The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas · Ursula K. Le Guin · ss New Dimensions 3, ed. Robert Silverberg, Nelson Doubleday, 1973748 · In the Penal Colony · Franz Kafka · nv; Kurt Wolff Verlag, May ’19.774 · A Dog in Durer’s Etching “The Knight, Death and The Devil” · Marco Denevi · ss, 1968782 · The Large Ant · Howard Fast · ss Fantastic Universe Feb ’60792 · The Lemmings · Alex Comfort · ss800 · The Grey Ones · J. B. Priestley · ss Lilliput Apr-May ’53816 · The Feather Pillow · Horacio Quiroga · ss, 1907820 · Seaton’s Aunt · Walter de la Mare · nv The London Mercury Apr ’22849 · The Friends of the Friends [“The Way It Came”] · Henry James · nv Chap Book May, 1896874 · The Travelling Companion · Hans Christian Andersen · ss, 1835891 · The Curfew Tolls · Stephen Vincent Benét · ss The Saturday Evening Post Oct 5 ’35907 · The State of Grace · Marcel Aymé · ss Across Paris and Other Stories, Paris, 1947; F&SF Dec ’59919 · The Story of a Panic · E. M. Forster · nv Independent Review Mar ’04940 · An Invitation to the Hunt · George Hitchcock · ss San Francisco Review Mar ’60950 · From the “American Notebooks” · Nathaniel Hawthorne · ex, 1868952 · The Dream · O. Henry · ss Cosmopolitan Sep ’10; completed by Cosmopolitan editor.956 · The Authors · Misc. · bg
Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic ed. Alberto Manguel (Random House/Clarkson & Potter 0-517-57559-0, Jan ’91 [Dec ’90], $14.95, 941pp, tp, cover by George Tooker) Anthology of 65 stories and novel excerpts, primarily by literary and mainstream authors. First American edition (Lester & Orpen Dennys 1990).xviii · Foreword · Alberto Manguel · fw1 · The Child Who Believed · Grace Amundson · ss The Saturday Evening Post Dec 16 ’5017 · It’s a Good Life · Jerome Bixby · ss Star Science Fiction Stories #2, ed. Frederik Pohl, Ballantine, 195336 · The Door · E. B. White · ss New Yorker, 193942 · Mysterious Kôr · Elizabeth Bowen · ss The Demon Lover and Other Stories, J. Cape, 194557 · Nights at Serampore · Mircea Eliade · na Two Tales of the Occult, Herder & Herder, 197099 · The Dead Fiddler · Isaac Bashevis Singer · nv, 1966127 · The Phoenix · Sylvia Townsend Warner · ss The Cat’s Cradle Book, Viking, 1940132 · The Spider · Hanns Heinz Ewers; trans. by Walter F. Kohn · nv The International Dec ’15155 · Changeling · Dorothy K. Haynes · ss Modern Scottish Short Stories, ed. Fred Urquhart & Giles Gordon, Hamish Hamilton, 1978164 · The July Ghost · Antonia S. Byatt · ss Firebird #1 ’82180 · Poor Girl · Elizabeth Taylor · ss The Third Ghost Book, ed. Cynthia Asquith, James Barrie, 1955200 · Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched · May Sinclair · nv The English Review Oct ’22222 · The Complete Gentleman · Amos Tutuola · ex The Palm-Wine Drinkard, London: Faber, 1952231 · The Professor and the Mermaid · Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa; trans. by Archibald Colquhoun · nv Two Stories and a Memory, Pantheon, 1962255 · The Sausage · Friedrich Dürrenmatt; trans. by Alberto Manguel · vi, 1989258 · A Woman Seldom Found · William Sansom · ss A Contest of Ladies and Other Stories, London: Hogarth Press, 1956262 · Mummy to the Rescue · Angus Wilson · ss Such Darling Dodos and Other Stories, Secker & Warburg, 1950269 · Aghwee the Sky Monster · Kenzaburõ Õe; trans. by John Nathan · nv Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness, Grove Press, 1977298 · Berkeley or Mariana of the Universe · Liliana Heker; trans. by Alberto Manguel · ss, 1986305 · The Saint · Antonia White · ss Life and Letters Nov ’31313 · The Ghost of Firozsha Baag · Rohinton Mistry · ss Quarry Spr ’86328 · The Miracle of Ash Wednesday [1926] · Yevgeny Zamyatin; trans. by Mirra Ginsburg · ss The Dragon, Random House, 1968336 · Heartburn · Hortense Calisher · ss The American Mercury Jan ’51347 · The Accident · Ann Bridge · nv The Song in the House, 1936370 · The Old Woman · Joyce Marshall · ss Canadian Short Stories, ed. Robert Weaver, Oxford, 1960383 · A Short Trip Home · F. Scott Fitzgerald · nv The Saturday Evening Post Dec 17 ’27405 · The Brute · Joseph Conrad · ss The Daily Chronicle Dec 5 ’06426 · Mr. Sleepwalker · Ethel Wilson · ss Mrs. Golightly and Other Stories, Toronto: Macmillan, 1961444 · A Self-Possessed Woman · Julian Barnes · ss The Times Anthology of Ghost Stories, Anon., London: Cape, 1975460 · The Woman Who Talked to Horses · Leon Rooke · ss Sing Me No Love Songs, I’ll Say You No Prayers, Ecco Press, 1984469 · The White Rooster · William Goyen · ss Mademoiselle Apr ’47484 · The Labrenas · Tommaso Landolfi; trans. by Kathrine Jason · nv Words in Commotion, and Other Stories, Viking, 1986508 · The Dead Fish [1955] · Boris Vian; trans. by Damon Knight · ss 13 French Science-Fiction Stories, ed. Damon Knight, Bantam, 1965521 · Major Aranda’s Hand [1955] · Alfonso Reyes; trans. by Mildred Johnson · ss The Eye of the Heart, ed. Barbara Howes, Bobbs-Merrill, 1973528 · Giving Birth · Margaret Atwood · ss, 1977543 · The Jewbird · Bernard Malamud · ss The Reporter Apr 11 ’63553 · The Misanthrope · John D. Beresford · ss Nineteen Impressions, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1918563 · Bartleby · Herman Melville · nv Putnam’s Monthly, 1853600 · Private—Keep Out! · Philip MacDonald · ss F&SF Fll ’49616 · Dreams · Timothy Findley · nv Stones, Penguin Books Canada, 1988638 · Mr. Dombey, the Zombie · Geoffrey Drayton · vi, 1951642 · Why I Changed into a Nightingale · Wolfgang Hildesheimer; trans. by Joachim Neugroschel · ss The Art of the Tale, ed. Daniel Halpern, Viking, 1986648 · The Troll · T. H. White · ss Gone to Ground, 1935660 · Two Words [1989] · Isabel Allende; trans. by Alberto Manguel · ss Mother Jones Jan-Feb ’91668 · Ch’ien-niang [from T’aip’ing Kwangchi, ca. 900 a.d.] · Chen Xuanyou; trans. by Wayne Schlepp · vi, 1990671 · The Visiting Star · Robert Aickman · nv Powers of Darkness, Collins, 1966696 · Ratanbabu and the Man · Satyajit Ray · ss The Unicorn Expedition, Dutton, 1987711 · How It Happened · Arthur Conan Doyle · ss The Strand Sep ’13716 · Same Time, Same Place · Mervyn Peake · ss Science-Fantasy #60 ’63726 · The Enigma of Arrival · V. S. Naipaul · ss New Yorker Aug 11 ’86728 · Faithful Peter · Lion Feuchtwanger; trans. by Renatha Oppenheimer · ss Stories from Far and Near, Viking, 1945736 · The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship · Gabriel García Márquez; trans. by Gregory Rabassa · ss The Leaf Storm and Other Stories, London: Cape, 1972742 · The House-Hunters · Peter Green · ss Habeas Corpus and Other Stories, World, 1963762 · The Yellow Wallpaper · Charlotte Perkins Gilman · ss New England Magazine Jan, 1892780 · Eckhardt at a Window · Eric McCormack · ss Inspecting the Vaults, Penguin Canada, 1987792 · The Lefthanders · Günter Grass; trans. by Alberto Manguel · ss, 1989799 · Mr. Arcularis · Conrad Aiken · nv, 1922819 · The Times My Father Died · Yehuda Amichai; trans. by Yosef Schachter · ss The World Is a Room and Other Stories, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1984830 · The Haunted House · Luigi Pirandello; trans. by Michele Pettinati · ss Medals, and Other Stories, Dutton, 1939847 · The Finder · Elizabeth Spencer · ss New Yorker Jan 23 ’71866 · Desire · James Stephens · ss The Dial Jun ’20874 · The Miraculous Revenge · George Bernard Shaw · ss Time Mar, 1885; ; as “The Grave of Brimstone Billy”, EQMM Oct ’51896 · Room of Blood · Brett Balon · ss, 1984904 · The Shadow · Ben Hecht · ss Liberty Jan 30 ’26920 · The Nine Billion Names of God · Arthur C. Clarke · ss Star Science Fiction Stories #1, ed. Frederik Pohl, Ballantine, 1953928 · The Authors · Misc. · bg
Taken fromhttp://www.locusmag.com/index/b323.htm#A4564
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 31 October 2014 13:42 (nine years ago) link
Re the Calvino antho-- I've been looking for a long time for an English language collection of villiers de l'isle adam's stories. If anyone knows of one online anywhere lemme know
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Friday, 31 October 2014 14:49 (nine years ago) link
Both Villiers de l'isle-Adam collections are affordable in print and on kindle
The Scaffold and Other Cruel TalesThe Vampire Soul and Other Sardonic Tales
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 31 October 2014 15:48 (nine years ago) link
aha i will check the nook store and see if it's the same situation there!
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Friday, 31 October 2014 16:05 (nine years ago) link
Ah cool, have heard good things about him, thanks.Departure delayed, so while cooling heels, and in honor of Hallows' Eve, a few from my village library. Haven't yet read any of these collections straight through, but for instance, Dark Descent opens with "The Reach" by Stephen King, which is pretty good for Stephen King. It's another Hartwell, so begging some questions like why "A Rose For Emily" and others almost as well known. Also why does King keep coming back (o why do I think). Anyway, looks promising overall, and I don't really remember most of the familiar titles all that well:The Dark Descentedited by David G/ Hartwell, huge paperback ed. first pub. '97, I thinkContents:pt. 1.The color of evil. The reach / Stephen King --Evening primrose / John Collier --The ash-tree / M. R. James --The new mother / Lucy Clifford --There's a long, long trail a-winding / Russell Kirk --The call of Cthulhu / H. P. Lovecraft --The summer people / Shirley Jackson --The whimper of whipped dogs / Harlan Ellison --Young Goodman Brown / Nathaniel Hawthorne --Mr. Justice Harbottle --J. Sheridan Le Fanu --The crowd / Ray Bradbury --The autopsy / Michael Shea --John Charrington's wedding / E. Nesbit --Sticks / Karl Edward Wagner --Larger than oneself / Robert Aickman --Belsen Express / Fritz Leiber --Yours truly, Jack the Ripper / Robert Bloch --If Damon comes / Charles L. Grant --Vandy, Vandy / Manly Wade Wellman --pt. 2.The Medusa in the shield. The swords / Robert Aickman --The roaches / Thomas M. Disch --Bright segment / Theodore Sturgeon --Dread / Clive Barker --The fall of the house of Usher / Edgar Allen Poe --The monkey / Stephen King --Within the walls of Tyre / Michael Bishop --The rats in the walls / H. P. Lovecraft --Schalken the painter / J. Sheridan Le Fanu --The yellow wallpaper / Charlotte Perkins Gilman --A rose for Emily / William Faulkner --How love came to Professor Guildea / Robert Hichens --Born of man and woman / Richard Matheson --My dear Emily / Joanna Russ --You can go now / Dennis Etchison --The rocking-horse winner / D. H. Lawrence --Three days / Tanith Lee --Good country people / Flannery O'Connor --Mackintosh Willy / Ramsey Campbell --The jolly corner / Henry James --pt. 3.A fabulous formless darkness. Smoke ghost / Fritz Leiber --Seven American nights / Gene Wolfe --The signal-man / Charles Dickens --Crouch End / Stephen King --Night-side / Joyce Carol Oates --Seaton's aunt / Walter de la Mare --Clara Militch / Ivan Turgenev --The repairer of reputations / Robert W. Chambers --The beckoning fair one / Oliver Onions --What was it? / Fitz-James O'Brien --The beautiful stranger / Shirley Jackson --The damned thing / Ambrose Bierce --Afterward / Edith Wharton --The willows / Algernon Blackwood --The Asian shore / Thomas M. Disch --The hospice / Robert Aickman --A little something for us tempunauts / Philip K. Dick. (less)
― dow, Friday, 31 October 2014 16:06 (nine years ago) link
Also from local library:The Mammoth Book of Short Horror Novels, edited by Mike Ashley, 1988.
The monkey / Stephen King The parasite / Arthur Conan Doyle There's a long, long trail a-winding / Russell Kirk The damned / Algernon Blackwood Fengriffen / David Case The uttermost farthing / A.C. Benson The rope in the rafters / Oliver Onions Nadelman's God / T.E.D. Klein The feasting dead / John Metcalfe How the wind spoke at Madaket / Lucius Shepard.
― dow, Friday, 31 October 2014 16:11 (nine years ago) link
Otto Penzler! The Mystery Book Store guy does some delving: didn't know proto-modern Southern novelist Ellen Glasgow wrote supernatural, but here she characteristically skewers the abusive perks of NYC medical high priests as well, in "The Shadowy Third"--which you can also read here:http://www.tor.com/stories/2012/10/the-shadowy-third
[The Big Book of Ghost Stories (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Original edited by Otto Penzler, 2012
BUT I’M NOT DEAD YETConrad Aiken: Mr. ArcularisWilliam Fryer Harvey: August Heat I’LL LOVE YOU—FOREVER (OR MAYBE NOT)Ellen Glasgow: The Shadowy ThirdEllen Glasgow: The PastDavid Morrell: But At My Back I Always HearO. Henry: The Furnished RoomPaul Ernst: Death’s Warm FiresideAndrew Klavan: The Advent ReunionR. Murray Gilchrist: The ReturnRudyard Kipling: The Phantom RickshawAmbrose Bierce: The Moonlit RoadLafcadio Hearn: The Story of Ming-YLafcadio Hearn: Yuki-Onna THIS OLD HOUSEAmyas Northcote: Brickett BottomE. F. Benson: How Fear Departed from the Long GalleryG. G. Pendarves: Thing of DarknessEdward Lucas White: The House of the NightmareHector Bolitho: The House on Half Moon StreetDick Donovan: A Night of HorrorVincent O’sullivan: The Burned House KIDS WILL BE KIDSRosemary Timperley: HarryMichael Reaves: Make-BelieveA. M. Burrage: PlaymatesRamsey Campbell: Just Behind YouA. E. Coppard: Adam And Eve and Pinch MeSteve Friedman: The Lost Boy of the Ozarks THERE’S SOMETHING FUNNY AROUND HEREMark Twain: A Ghost’s StoryDonald E. Westlake: In At The DeathNathaniel Hawthorne: The Ghost of Dr. Harris“Ingulphus”: The Everlasting ClubIsaac Asimov and James Maccreigh: Legal RitesAlbert E. Cowdrey: Death Must DieFrank Stockton: The Transferred GhostOscar Wilde: The Canterville Ghost A NEGATIVE TRAIN OF THOUGHTAugust Derleth: Pacific 421Robert Weinberg: The Midnight El STOP—YOU’RE SCARING MEFrederick Cowles: Punch and JudyHenry S. Whitehead: The FireplaceH. F. Arnold: The Night Wire 400Fritz Leiber: Smoke Ghost 406Wyatt Blassingame: Song of the Dead I MUST BE DREAMINGWilkie Collins: The Dream Woman 437Washington Irving: The Adventure of the German Student A SÉANCE, YOU SAY?Joseph Shearing: They Found My GraveEdgar Jepson: Mrs. Morrel’s Last SéanceJoyce Carol Oates: Night-Side CLASSICSM. R. James: “Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come To You My Lad”W. W. Jacobs: The Monkey’s PawW. W. Jacobs: The Toll-HouseEdith Wharton: AfterwardWilla Cather: ConsequencesCynthia Asquith: The FollowerCynthia Asquith: The Corner ShopH. P. Lovecraft: The Terrible Old ManErckmann-Chatrian: The Murderer’s ViolinSaki: The Open WindowSaki: LauraFitz-James O’Brien: What Was It?Alexander Woollcott: Full Fathom FiveH. R. Wakefield: He Cometh and He Passeth ByPerceval Landon: Thurnley Abbey THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIESAlgernon Blackwood: The Woman’s Ghost StoryVictor Rousseau: The Angel of the MarneOlivia Howard Dunbar: The Shell of SenseMarjorie Bowen: The Avenging of Ann Leete BEATEN TO A PULPGreye La Spina: The Dead-WagonUrann Thayer: A Soul with Two BodiesArthur J. Burks: The Ghosts of Steamboat CouleeThorp Mcclusky: The Considerate HostsCyril Mand: The Fifth CandleAugust Derleth and Mark Schorer: The Return of Andrew BentleyM. L. Humphreys: The Floor AboveManly Wade Wellman: School for the UnspeakableA. V. Milyer: Mordecai’s PipeJulius Long: He Walked by DayDale Clark: Behind the Screen MODERN MASTERSM. Rickert: Journey into the KingdomH. R. F. Keating: Mr. SaulChet Williamson: Coventry Carol1Categories for this bookFiction - Horror Tags for this book (powered by Library Thing)horror (7)
Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! 23 Hours The Vampire Archives 32 Fangs The Devil in Silver COFFINS Interview with the Vampire Frankenstein: Lost Souls Brother Odd Frankenstein: Dead and Alive
― dow, Friday, 31 October 2014 16:29 (nine years ago) link
I finished Dark Descent early last year and I found it quite disappointing. I think a big part of it was to show how varied horror could be and it certainly succeeded in that respect, but I think the quality is extremely uneven. I thought Stephen King's "The Monkey" was far too weak to be included.
I understand promoting Aickman with 3 tales but King really didn't need three. Some other authors had two tales but I found all multiple authors but Aickman hard to justify when you don't have essentials like Machen, CA Smith and Hodgson.
For a long time it seemed like Aickman was never going to get mainstream prestige treatment but this year this nice line came out..http://www.faber.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/index/order/date_of_publication/dir/desc/q/Robert+Aickman/ Even Fangoria (or was it Rue Morgue magazine?) did a cover feature on him.
Poe, Lovecraft, MR James, Le Fanu, Blackwood, Onions, CP Gillman, RW Chambers, Bierce and several other obvious ones were good but you expect that because they are always in anthologies. Tanith Lee, Lucy Clifford and John Collier were the highlights for me because their names aren't so big. Michael Shea was good but I'd heard a lot about him but after his recent death it seems he was more neglected than I thought.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 31 October 2014 17:35 (nine years ago) link
I got Ashley's Mammoth Short Horror Novels and Penzler's Vampire Archives.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 31 October 2014 17:41 (nine years ago) link
Those Villiers ebooks are on the nook store too, yay. I have 5$ credit and now I'm torn between The Scaffold and The Vampire Soul.
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Friday, 31 October 2014 17:52 (nine years ago) link
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?2451
They're part of an interesting series: Black Coat French Horror. I've got Gaspard de La Nuit by Aloysius Bertrand.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 31 October 2014 18:57 (nine years ago) link
Is that a graphic novel adaptation???
(I'm familiar with Bertrand's piece in its guise as the inspiration for Ravel's piano suite, but I thought it was a relatively short set of prose poems)
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Friday, 31 October 2014 20:50 (nine years ago) link
Not a graphic novel but it includes artwork by Bertrand and essays by other people. Cover art by Gahan Wilson.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 31 October 2014 20:57 (nine years ago) link
Yeah I got a lotta doubts about Dark Descent, but will prob read more of it anyway, eventually. Nice on backstory and enduring appeal of A Canticle For Leibowitz:http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/science-fiction-classic-still-smolders
― dow, Friday, 31 October 2014 23:57 (nine years ago) link
It occurred to me that one dude who def owes a debt to kuttner/moore is gene wolfe, specifically his short fiction
many xxxp
― Οὖτις, Saturday, 1 November 2014 13:28 (nine years ago) link
Really? idgi
― Thackeray Zax (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 1 November 2014 15:42 (nine years ago) link
New Michael Faber book gets backhanded nod from NYTimes reviewer http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/books/the-book-of-strange-new-things-by-michel-faber.htmlbut rave from M. John Harrisonhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/23/the-book-of-strange-new-things-michel-faber-review
― Thackeray Zax (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 1 November 2014 16:10 (nine years ago) link
don, here is something about Canticle from another slick, relinked from Hugo award winners part 1 (53-79)http://harpers.org/blog/2008/11/girded-loins/
― Thackeray Zax (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 1 November 2014 16:18 (nine years ago) link
Oh yeah, Faber got rave from David Mitchell too.
Thanks. I don't remember Canticle very well, but interesting what it meant to readers, incl. budding writers; I'll have to re-read it. New issue of Clarkesworld looks promising, though only read the Cadigan story so far. Somebody want to explain the beginning(stuff that just happens to be on TV), and the ending (looping in those last two sentences from the first section)?http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/cadigan_11_14_reprint/
― dow, Sunday, 2 November 2014 01:30 (nine years ago) link
canticle is incredibld
― the late great, Sunday, 2 November 2014 01:39 (nine years ago) link
incredible, even
Used to think -surprise!-that Canticle came from outside the SF ghetto, but in fact it was a fixup of three stories originally published in F&SF, I believe. Miller also published in Galaxy, won the 1955 Hugo for best novelette with "The Darfsteller", published in Astounding.
Current edition of Canticle has preface by one Mary Doria Russell, author of The Sparrow, a tale of space-faring Jesuits which I have not read.
― Thackeray Zax (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 2 November 2014 17:50 (nine years ago) link
I have, it's mostly ridiculous. Or go digging for the overlong and more positive post I wrote at the time.
― ledge, Sunday, 2 November 2014 18:15 (nine years ago) link
Found it upthread: rolling fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction &c. thread
This thread is getting too long to access. It's like the old guy in the tower in the south of Viriconium who starts forgetting all the wisdom he had held on to for so long in The Pastel City by the end of A Storm of Wings.
― Thackeray Zax (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 2 November 2014 19:44 (nine years ago) link
There is some kind weird thing were Gardner Dozois edited a bunch of books with the nomenclature Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year Seventh Annual Collection http://bestsf.net/best-science-fiction-stories-of-the-year-seventh-annual-collection-ed-dozois/But then there are bunch of ebooks from a decade or two later called The Year's Best Science Fiction: Seventh Annual Collection.http://www.amazon.com/The-Years-Best-Science-Fiction-ebook/dp/B009LRWWR2/
I mean I guess they are different titles but still.
― Thackeray Zax (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 2 November 2014 22:17 (nine years ago) link
And the dozois books are published in the uk/Australia etc as The Mammoth Book of SF 32, with the number not matching the US edition. Could these buggers not just put the year in the title?
― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Monday, 3 November 2014 02:03 (nine years ago) link
Ha, yes, exactly!
From one amazon review of The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 22
WARNING: The thirty stories in this collection are exactly the same 30 stories found in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection. In fact, these two books seem to be the same except for different titles and covers. Don't buy both expecting them to be separate books.
― Thackeray Zax (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 November 2014 02:57 (nine years ago) link
We should start a new rolling annual thread
― Οὖτις, Monday, 3 November 2014 04:03 (nine years ago) link
Via the new issue of http://news.ansible.uk/a328.html, Raymond Chandler dashes off good microparody of SF, with a prophetic Search handle even:http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/06/they-pay-brisk-money-for-this-crap.html
― dow, Monday, 3 November 2014 16:48 (nine years ago) link
Recently read the Malzberg story based on that
― Thackeray Zax (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 3 November 2014 16:51 (nine years ago) link
Started The Dark Desccent antho a couple of days ago (in PDF). Am on the 2nd story - John Collier - and enormously impressed with him. Should have read this guy ages ago.
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Monday, 3 November 2014 19:58 (nine years ago) link
Yes, he's very funny. Wonderful description of ghosts and I love that bit where the man consoles the girl by saying they'll talk about birds on twigs, or something like that. Really love "New Mother" by Lucy Clifford. It has an emotional power because of the naive sweet childlike language and worldview. I think I'll buy her collection this week, it's supposed to be very good and somewhat unique.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 3 November 2014 21:01 (nine years ago) link
The sweetness is also a set-up for suckerpunch (no anesthetics please, we're Victorian)
― dow, Monday, 3 November 2014 22:02 (nine years ago) link
It's bizarre and kind of scary that she written them for (her own?) children.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 3 November 2014 22:27 (nine years ago) link
Philosopher's SF recommendations. Lot of worthy stuff in there, sadly lacking in links to free shit. Makes me think I should buy some Ted Chiang.
http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~eschwitz/SchwitzPapers/SF-MasterList-141103-byauthor.htm
― ledge, Wednesday, 5 November 2014 12:10 (nine years ago) link